Good and evil. Yin and Yang. Black and blue.
by penultimate-lifeform
Summary: Despite that title, it has nothing to do with Black and White (no, I don't own Black and White *sigh*) This is a tale of what happened after SA2, and hopefully is original (yeah right) enough to keep you hooked. Please R&R. CHAPTER 2 NOW UP!
1. The gathering (oooh, how occult!)

Okay, I don't own sonic, or anything I write about. Blah blah.  
  
This is an... erm... interesting idea about an after SA2 story. Bascially, another adventure (eww... I hate that word....) with the Sonic gang, and some insights into some of the other characters. And all that jazz. Nothing original in the idea, but I'm trying to write something slightly... different. Apologies for the extensive dialogue in chapter 1.  
  
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The night was cold and sharp. The moon shone brilliantly along with a cascade of stars twinling their purity and innocence onto the Earth. Their reflection on the pond danced around eratically, as two figures sat with their feet in the water, and kicked gently.  
  
"But why did they do that Sonic? Why did they-"  
"They were frightened. They didn't know what it, what he, would lead to."  
"All that horror because they were afraid? Sometimes I feel like so many people on this world are mad."  
"So did he."  
  
They went back to staring vacantly ahead, their minds buzzing with thoughts, with memories. Hedgehog and fox, side by side.  
  
A darker figure lurked in the bushes beside them, waiting.  
  
"I wonder what happened to Eggman?"  
"Oh, I'm sure he'll be back. He's not the type to lie low for long. Don't worry! We can deal with him. We have before."  
  
Waiting. I've been waiting forever.  
  
"And Rouge? I never really got to talk to her."  
"Oh, I suppose Rouge is off doing something. She doesn't seem the type to settle down."  
  
So, so long. Well now the time is over.  
  
The figure left the cover of the bush, and walked casually over to the pair, as might one who had nothing to hide, one not shrouded by enigma, one, in fact, quite different from Shadow.  
He paced right over to the pond, apparently ignoring the two there, and sat down next to Tails, following their lead and dropping his feet in the water, and staring vacantly forwards, into the stars.  
  
Both heads snapped around at the same time.  
Sonic's cry of "Shadow!" Was interupted by a splash as Tails fell into the pond. Both Sonic and Shadow automatically reached out to him, as he was floundering, pawing at the water but unable to keep afloat. They hauled him up, an arm each.  
Sonic was still staring at Shadow a mixture of shock and suspiscion.  
"Shadow. How did you-" he started  
Shadow nodded his head towards the dripping, shivering orange heap   
"Why don't we get him somewhere warm before we talk"  
  
And so they made their way back to Sonic's house; Sonic with his arm around the shivering Tails, Tails not saying anything but staring at the ground, and Shadow skating very slowly on the light coming out of the bottom of his shoes. All three, silent.  
  
Finally, they reached Sonic's house. It was somewhat isolated, like a scaled-up version of a country cottage, but inside it was full of all sorts of novelty gadgets, from cloks that projected the time on the wall, to lava lamps, to odd figurines that danced when music played. All so lively during a party, or when they were all doing there job, but now lying, unused, with a melancholy air.   
They all sat down, Sonic and Tails on the sofa, and Shadow in a chair facing them, and Sonic turned on one of the lava lamps, so a dim red light poured into the room. Tails was sent to the bathroom to dry himself off.  
  
"So, Shadow, you're... back. But, but how?"  
Shadow continued to stare at a point just to the left of Sonic's head, and began  
"The Ultimate Lifeform was created in two parts. Light and Dark, 'Good and Evil', if you would have it, Black and Blue. We never new each other very well, we were separate" And he said the next word with terrible bitterness "experiments. I was mainly looked after by Maria, you by a man named Richard. Maria spoke of you sometimes. Apparently, while Maria and I became freinds after a short while, you were still treated as the experiment, the lab rat, by Richard."  
  
"But, I don't remember any of this."  
  
Shadow continued as if he had not heard the statement  
"And then, G.U.N. came. I remember well how we both fought only to defend our 'keepers', or whatever you may call them, but, eventually, we realised the need for teamwork. We fought, side by side, unarmed at first, but then I snatched a gun from one of Them, althoug you would not touch it. Eventually, of course, we were overcome. Richard surrendered himself, and Maria was shot. We were both captured. 33 years, roughly, we spent, both in different tanks, until we were released by G.U.N. for some experiments. I broke free and, realising that you muyst have gone through the same torures as me, in that tank, I broke open your cell. You, of course, thought that I had come to rescue you, but instead I pinned you down to the floor and used a samll device that I had found to erase all of your memory. then, I released you into the world. It was best.  
"I was recaptured soon afterwards, but you were not. I was thought too dangerous to be let out ever again, and put back in my tank. until of course, Ivo released me again, and you know the rest of the story."  
  
"But I still don't-"  
  
"Of course, although the Ultimate lifeform was created in Light and Dark halves, we would not seem overly different, although I am obviously more somber than you, except in extreme circumstances. I have been, ever since They came, in extreme circumstances.  
But another thing about the ultimate lifeform being created in two halves was the fact that we act towards one another as Light and Shadow actuallu do to each other. Shadow will always exsist as long as there is light to cause one. Light would not be light if there were nothing but light, so light will always exist without Shadow.  
If one of us dies, but not the other, the one who dies will reform, as I did. It does take a while though, and during that while, the survivng one will be noticably weakened. So that is how I came to be again. that is also why I didn't let you die. If you had, and had reformed yourself, you would have started asking questions."  
  
Sonic blinked, digesting this.  
At the same time, Tails enters, his fur frizzled up his eyes wide with shock, and still with the last traces of a shiver. He looks from Sonic to Shadow, Shadow to Sonic, both staring just to the left of the other's head, and plonkes himslf down on the sofa. 


	2. It begins again

"But- why did you come to us?" Sonic asked, eventually  
"Ah, that is what I needed to tell you." He started, flourishing a small disk, "When I reformed, I did not come to you immediatley. I first made my way to the main G.U.N. complex. I had to find the truth. Was I the Ultimate Lifeform? And why had they killed so many of us 50 years ago? I foun no conclusive proof, but the evidence I did find was to the effect that I, or, more accurately we, were the ultimate lifeform. I also found something else, something newer, and something much more dangerous. We used the eclipse canon to destroy half of the moon, remeber? Well, now it has been discovered, as could be expected, that some pieces of the moon were sent in the direction of the Earth. If they collide, they could cause total devistation, and innihilate almost everybody in the world because of the shokwaves and ecological disaster that would follow. So far, G.U.N. are the only ones who know about this, and even only a few of their top-ranking members know. They do not want to tell anybody, because it would cause panic. They, however, are fools."  
"What?"  
"They intend to destroy these pieces of the moon uisng a weapon named the NIOsect. Whereas it might seem simple to blast these pieces or knock them off-course, this will be a creature, not unlike the Biolizard" And here Tails gave an involuntary shudder "which will use great nuclear power to disslove the pieces. The question is- what after that? I know only too well that creatures made with artificial intelligence, as this one will have, should not be left wihtout a purpose. The results will be disasterous."  
  
Again, there was a silence of Sonic and Tails digesting the information.  
Finally, Sonic clenched his fists and said "Let's go."  
  
The journey to the G.U.N. complex was somewhat uneventful. Shadow ran ahead, "To check the building first", and Sonic hitched a ride with Tails in the cyclone. When they met up, Shadow said that he had determined a path, and showed it to them on a map that he had printed out.  
Sonic nodded, but Tails said "It seems we are taking a detour via the cells here" pointing at part of the path.  
Shadow paused for a split second.  
"Ah, I think Sonic underestimates you Miles. Yes, we are taking a detour, but you will see why when we get there."  
  
And so they began their trek into the building. The first level of security was laughably lax, and consisted of looking as if they were supposed to be there. The second level required I.D, which Shadow had provided them with, saying that he had fought with some men here, and retrieved the I.D cards from their uncosicous bodies. Of course, they could not simply go through looking as they did without an explination. They were "BI0COPIs" of Sonic, Shadow, and Miles who were being tested for genuinity.  
  
The third level, and the final level that they would need to get through was not so easy. Of course, in open combat it would have been easy, but it was necessary to not allow the guards to sound the alarm.  
  
"Halt! Who goes there?"   
TAILS silently laughed at this primitve form of security.  
"We are BI0COPIs of Sonic, Shadow and Miles." said Shadow, indicating the three.  
"I.D?"  
  
Sonic started to take the I.D card form his pocket, but 'accidently' also lifted a coin out and dropped it. During this momentary slight distraction, Shadow and Tails each punched the nearest guard. Their punches did not connect, however, until Sonic, who had pretended to bend down to pick up the coin, had flipped into one of them and knocked him to the ground. They were now powerless, they could not reach their guns or a security button, but they could still scream, so both Sonic and Shadow immediately put their hands over their mouthes. Shadow then kicked both of them, hard, so that they balcked out.  
Sonic straightened up, but saw that Shadow was still on the ground.  
"What are you doing?"  
"Don't stop me." Replied Shadow, without looking up  
"What are- you're not? You can't kill them."  
"Shut up, somebody will here you. Just let me finish him. Nobody will know about it. Nobody who cares."  
"You can't ju-"  
  
A flash of bright green light  
  
Shadow was standing up  
  
"-st kill-- What have you done?"  
"It's done. Now hurry up."  
"You stopped time? I can't believe you did that!"  
Tails spoke quietly "Me neither. The reason being, you need a chaos emerald."  
"Which is where the fact that I have one comes in." Said shadow, flourishing for a second, a small twinkle of green light.  
  
Without another word, he ran on, through the now opened security door. Tails hesitated, then followed.  
Sonic just stod staring at the bodies, then as if just noticing the other two were gone, ran after them.  
  
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"Here it is!" Shadow smiled, indicating the huge expanse with a sweep of his arm.  
  
The room was unimaginably large. Seeing is one thing, being there is quite another. An overwhelming feeling of agrophobia, and even vertigo swept over Tails, a usually carefree and optimistic fox. Every wall was lined with row upon row of small tanks. Sonic just stared.  
"Th-They keep people in here?" Tails said, agast with horror.  
"Humans, foxes, hedgehogs, anyone." And deep within this sudden happy-go-lucky mood that Shadow was radiating, there was a deep bitterness.   
"Now..." Shadow began to mutter to himself as he started to use the computer console.  
Tails had never seen anybody use a computer like that in his life. No pause, no slowness, no mistakes, his hands ran fluidly over the alien keys, too fast to see what he was typing or doing, he worked that computer as if it was his own body, even his own mind. he even seemed to be able to work the hardware the same way. Eventually he had to use a small device to 'free up' some of the more secure files in the database, and, although the devise and the console were both unknown, he fixed it on and started it working without any hesitation. Finally he stopped.  
"Finally, I have access." He said, running his card through the machine with one hand, and taking off the device with the other. "She is quite a distance away. You know this room is roughly 5 miles by 20 meters by 1 mile?" While he spoke he began to finger the Chaos Emerald. "Chaos Control!" he whispered to himself, and with a short flash of green light, he was gone.  
It was very soon afterwards that he was back, and this time, there was also a young girl with him, unconscious.  
"This is Maria. She is in a good condition, but I need somewhere to put her. Would your house be okay?" Shadow asked, hurridly. His strange, slightly warped sense of joy was replaced by a more familiar one of hurried urgency  
"Um. Sure."  
  
Both Sonic and Tails were slightly dazed. This was moving so quickly, and more importantly, Sonic did not seem in charge. They were not used to it. On top of that was the revealed information of Sonic's past, and Shadow's unexpected and only hastily explained 'reformation'. Sonic looked back at Shadow, to see that the girl was already gone.  
  
"Okay," sighed Shadow "Now we can see what these idoits are really up to." 


End file.
